Arch Linux

kelnoky

Member

Registered: 2007-11-20

Posts: 135

[SOLVED] Font problem in Firefox - looks ugly compared to Chromium

So I wanted to switch to chromium a while ago and the fonts there looked ugly compared to FF. So I played around with my ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf and installed new fonts, read the fonts wiki etc. The result was that in the end the fonts in chromium looked good while the FF fonts looked shit. I have no idea how I managed that. Now I might wanna switch back to FF and...yeah, it looks ugly. For reference: http://i.imgur.com/78diBQC.png Left side is nicely anti-aliased/hinted/whatever it is fonts on chromium, right side is ugly looking FF. Another one: http://i.imgur.com/ECwLDIt.png Also the google search results are way too bold/too much hinting(?): http://i.imgur.com/vZYZXi2.png

This is my ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
	<match target="font">
		<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
			<bool>true</bool>
		</edit>
		<edit mode="assign" name="embeddedbitmap">
			<bool>false</bool>
		</edit>
		<edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
			<bool>true</bool>
		</edit>
		<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
			<const>hintmedium</const>
		</edit>
		<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
			<const>lcddefault</const>
		</edit>
		<edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
			<const>rgb</const>
		</edit>
	</match>
</fontconfig>

I hope someone can help me with this. Fonts are still a mystery to me. It used to mostly "just work" for the 8 years I have used Linux. I have read the fonts and fontconfig wiki more than once, I still can't figure this stuff out.

Last edited by kelnoky (2015-09-24 15:25:06)

Ropid

Member

Registered: 2015-03-09

Posts: 1,069

Re: [SOLVED] Font problem in Firefox - looks ugly compared to Chromium

In the Chromium screenshots, that's "hintslight" style, while in the Firefox screenshots it's how "hintfull" looks like. In your config you use "hintmedium". Perhaps that's differently interpreted in the two browsers?

Additionally, that's different fonts in some cases. In the Firefox screenshots you see Verdana (or perhaps DejaVu Sans), while in the Chromium screenshots it's Open Sans in your archlinux.org screenshot. In the reddit screenshot, I think that might be how Verdana looks like with "hintslight" instead of "hintfull".

I have no idea how that difference can happen. Perhaps start Firefox from a terminal and look at its output there? There might be an error message about a fontconfig file.

Last edited by Ropid (2015-09-24 11:20:18)

kelnoky

Member

Registered: 2007-11-20

Posts: 135

Re: [SOLVED] Font problem in Firefox - looks ugly compared to Chromium

Wow. So dumb. Thank you, Ropid. I changed it to 'hintslight' (I think that was the setting I had before everything started...) and now both FF and chromium look fine. So apparently FF can't handle hintmedium. Thanks!